Computation of Fractional Hours of Irregular Unscheduled Overtime

The Director of the Office of Personnel Management requested an opinion of GAO in regard to providing that an agency may institute the practice of rounding up and rounding down to the nearest quarter hour (or fractions less than a quarter of an hour) for crediting irregular, unscheduled overtime work. GAO has no legal objection to the proposal. Under the rounding system, the odd minutes of irregular, unscheduled overtime work disregarded by rounding down would over a period of time be balanced by the odd minutes gained from rounding up. Therefore, it is in the best interest of agencies and employees to allow the agencies to use this method of crediting irregular, unscheduled overtime work when appropriate.